Let me start by saying that I absolutely loved Parkin's previous books, and was very excited to get my hands on this one! Sadly, it wasn't a good fit for me. Whilst it started out strong and I found Willow's grief very touching and well portrayed, which invested me immediately in the story and her character, it all fell apart for me when Luca made an appearance. His character was such an odd fit! I felt like the interactions between Willow and Luca were stilted and sometimes even made me cringe, and the whole story took on the style of a YA novel. I felt at this point that my interest was slipping. Even though the slaughter man had me intrigued at first, he became like a marginal character in the Willow and Luca show, rather than the creepy figure he could have been.

I concede that this story just wasn't for me at this time, but look forward to reading more from the author in future. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm surprised by the amount of negative reviews this easy to read thriller novel had received because it really wasn't all that bad. Sure it's not great since there were a little more than a few flaws that I disliked but the authors writing style allowed the story to run smoothly and emotionally driven storyline that showcased the reality of grief impressed me greatly. I loved the dynamic between Lucas and Willow, and how he pushed her towards the end. I will notate that I wasn't exactly impressed with the ending which left me with a lot of unanswered questions but despite that, it was an overall decent mystery thriller.

After starting this and reading other negative reviews, I’ve decided to skip this one and move on to other books that appeal to me more.

This was a surprisingly great read. I thought it was going to be only ok, but it actually had a lot of emotional depth and kept me engaged. I highly recommend it!

The book itself an easy to read thriller. Which is why I've given it a 3.5/5, as this is my favorite type of book to read. I started it around 9 AM and it took me a solid 5 hours of dedicated reading time to finish.

There were moments where moments where I had chills run down my back with anticipation of what would happen. The main character, Willow, got herself into quite a situations (in her dreams and in her real life) that lead me to keep reading in anticipation. I liked that it wasn't full throttle thriller, and it gave you breaks in between to wrap your head around what had happened.

Additionally, the format of the story was interesting as chapters skipped in and out of reality. I found this to be a good way to keep the story progressing, without bogging us down in the details. It really let us know just how much Willow was suffering internally. In her waking self we saw SOME of Willow's struggles, but the dreams drove the point home overall.

The reason I only gave it 3.5/5 stars was the resolution to the story. We had a lot of build up to the The Slaughter Man only to have the main characters break into his house TWICE, and get no REAL consequences. When he locks him in the house at the end, I figured we'd get more resolution but it just doesn't come. We get a long story from Luca that seems to open the main character up to another persons sadness and thus help push her through her own stuff. But we never get resolution with the fact that they're locked in the spooky mans house?

If anything the slaughter man plot points feel like an after thought. While I liked the tension of her dreams, and being in the woods and the crows, I could have done without the scary man who lives at the end of the lane. Seems like it just didnt belong.

Willow is a young 17 year old girl who is a survivor, having lost her identical twin sister, Laurel. Willow is plagued by frightening dreams and wets the bed as a result of her immersion in the scary night time worlds. During the day, she cannot speak (or express herself in many ways at all) as she has become non-verbal since the death of her sister.

Her parents, Rose and Stephen, are desperate to try to help Willow to recover and so they send her on a trip to stay with Willow’s long lost Uncle Joe who lives in the country, away from the congested urban environment and the daily pressures of Willow’s college life, which are potentially hampering her recovery.

Next door to Joe’s country home lives Katherine, who owns a smallholding farm. Luca lives on the farm and helps out with the animal care. There are lots of quiet, isolated places for Willow to explore and forbidden places in the woods where she is most definitely not permitted to go, for her own safety. The Slaughter Man lives in the woods.

Eventually Willow meets Luca, the boy next door, and the book follows their adventure which takes place on the farm, in Uncle Joe’s home and the woods beyond. There are plenty of dark, disturbing dreams to lose yourself in and to counterbalance this, lots of cute animals to make everything seem a little kinder - kittens in hay bales, baby goats in bedrooms. However, nature itself can be cruel and sometimes the goats have frightening stares which unsettle even the most angst ridden teenage boy.

This is a story about love, loss, sexuality and sexual orientation as well as being dark and filled with menace and mystery. The portrayal of acute grief disorder interested me as I personally have experience of this, following the traumatic death of my late mother. And I do feel that the writer did justice to the reality of severe trauma when associated with the death of a much loved relative; it can be utterly profound and surely nothing is more so than the loss of the ability to express yourself, vocally or otherwise.

I found this book very easy to read and finished it in one sitting. My only criticism is that I didn’t expect it to end the way it did. That said, the story does come to its own logical conclusion even if it wasn’t my dream ending, hence I’m being a touch conservative in my rating!

The Slaughter Man gets 3 / 5 stars from me

The Slaughter Man is an intense, beautifully written novel about grief, in this case the peculiar grief following the loss of part of you as Willow goes on a very personal and difficult journey after the death of her identical twin sister.

In fact The Slaughter Man is a novel of identity, of readjusting to a new reality and it is told through a dreamlike quality of prose and an emotionally resonant point of view. The Slaughter Man at the heart of the novel is a person both real and imagined, Willow silent in life, yet talking in other ways leads us down dark and difficult paths. Informed more and more by those around her, including Luca, a damaged soul, her Uncle who is struggling with demons of his own and, of course, the evocative Slaughter Man, slowly but surely Willow works out her pain.

The setting is melancholy and gorgeous, the realities insightful, The Slaughter Man is a very personal, very human tale and I fell into it, a literary gem that holds you in its quirky, heartfelt grip from first page to last.

Recommended.

At seventeen, Willow loses the most important person in her life: her twin sister, Laurel. Now, with nightmares haunting her every night and her life a complete mess, she has to learn how to cope without her soul sister. When things get incredibly rough, her uncle will take her away for a change of scenery. But in a cottage, away from the largest part of civilization, can Willow handle the secrets she will find?

Being a big fan of Cassandra Parkin's previous books, I had high expectations for The Slaughter Man. And, although some parts of the story were incredibly depicted and narrating (like the pain and loss Willow feels without her sister, or her road to recovery), this story felt quite disappointing. First of all, the title makes you expect something that doesn't quite come. For spoiler reasons, I won't get in depth on that. Willow's story built up my expectation as I kept reading. Instead of a crescendo, it offered me a disappointing ending that had little to show compared to the rest of the story.

Willow's character was very well constructed and the in-depth depiction of her thoughts and dreams was marvelous. But other than her, the characters were shallow and lacking. All in all, it wasn't a book that left a great impression on me.

I enjoyed the premise of this one more than the execution. Some parts were creepy, but the pacing felt a little slow at time and it wasn't very easy for me to get through motivation-wise. As others have said too, the genre felt a little undetermined, reading like YA at times and adult at other times.

This is an enjoyable read but it’s very confusing at times, I think the book is also confused itself as what it’s meant to be because it felt more YA but not quite. A good read, but could be great with a bit less confusion.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book felt more like a Young Adult read to me than adult fiction. The main character, Willow is dealing with extreme grief over the loss of her twin sister. She loses her ability to speak, but as the reader you know her thought and often times creepy dreams. I enjoyed the book, although the one sided dialogue made it frustrating at times. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

The Slaughter Man is about a seventeen-year-old girl named Willow, who has just suffered the loss of her twin and is no longer able to speak. Unable to cope, it’s suggested that she gets out of her current environment to live with her uncle for a few months to see if it improves her condition. While wandering the woods around her uncle’s place, she trespasses on the property of Slaughter Man, the local horror story. Throughout her stay, she tries to find ways to get better while still being haunted by the memory of her sister and nightmares of Slaughter Man.

Though it’s not a bad story, the book isn’t at all like I expected. While some parts are creepy, most of the book is not, as I had hoped. I like that each character had flaws, it made them more relatable. However, I felt the book had left a lot of unanswered questions which left me disappointed and wanting more. The book leaves the ending more open for the reader to decide.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.75 stars


Completely confused on how to rate this.
Some parts were very creepy,particularly the bird bits and some of the slaughter man bits,some bits were so heartfelt that I almost felt Willows grief.... and for me,some bits just weren't very interesting.

A mixed bag is the best I can say.

Since the death of her sister, Laurel, 17-yr-old willow hasn't been able to speak. Hoping it will help Willow to recover, Willow's parents send her to live with her her uncle in a rural setting. There, Willow meets Luka, another troubled teenager. In THE SLAUGHTERMAN, Parkin has created an interesting story full of mystery and dreams. Beautifully written but somewhat confusing, THE SLAUGHTERMAN demonstrates one girl's journey through loss and adolescence.